Archive for June 2007
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To the bus, headed to see some possible river locations. Big problem is that there are no actual rivers in Hong Kong so this is actually a pond, but it could definitely work. It's the best I've seen so I'm pretty happy with it. Much better than what we saw yesterday.
Went to see some grassy fields. This grass is great but there isn't enough of it. Plus, there are city lights all around us. We'd have to keep the angles pretty tight. Not going to work.
Headed to another part of town, a place for the first dialogue scene of the film. I need an area outside of town but On found this cool little meeting place-temple that we can use as a background. Great colorful stuff inside. Maybe I can add a scene in front of this table. Maybe not.
We then saw a little road that could work for some stuff. It's not very long, but it might work for a little bit of a scene. The best thing we found on this excursion was this dry little drainage creek that looks exactly like the river I'm looking for, if there was water in it, of course. On is optimistic. He says we can put a portable damn on one end and fill this thing. Very cool. On is the man!
Off to another possibility for the first dialogue scene. Much better than the last suggestion, but not what I want. I guess I could make it work if I needed to. Seems to be the way it is for every location I see, though. Not feeling great at the moment. Plus, the bus gets stuck and we have to take a taxi to the OCTOBER offices.
We meet with On, Ronald and Man Man and go through the script. On has some questions for me. The whole location problem comes up. It seems like everything I see doesn't work for me. And I'm not being picky at all. Matt and Gregg feel the same way.
On admits that he doesn't know if we're going to find stuff that works for this film in HONG KONG. We're making a film that takes place in rural China but there HONG KONG is pretty much completely developed. This thing is going to be a challenge for sure.
We leave a bit down but Ronald has promised to go back to the drawing board and look for more locations. He feels there are options we haven't seen yet.
On the way home we pass an interesting store and chill out at the hotel for a while. I take a nap and can barely get up at 8 pm to head to dinner. I'm dragging ass the rest of the night. Matt and I want something familiar. 99% of the food we've eaten in the last two days has been completely unfamiliar, and while it's been good, we are both in the mood for something simple and normal.
Gregg fights us every step of the way and we look for some other options but we're all so tired and just want to eat and hit the sack, so we hit a place called THE SPEGHETTI HOUSE. It starts as a joke but we soon find ourselves waiting for our seats, checking out the pretty lame menu.
The food was all right, but it was pizza and pasta and it definitely reset Matt and I for some more experimentation in the days to come. Gregg can't believe we came to HONG KONG and ate at a lousy chain restaurant. He displays his anger clearly.
Back to the room and down we go. I'm so freaking tired I can't even check my email. I almost fall asleep checking my email.
Down I go, a bit bummed about the location situation but hoping we can find something in the next few days.
Let's hope Ronald will come through.
-ed
HONG KONG DAY 2
Got up, ready for my second day of scouting!To the bus, headed to see some possible river locations. Big problem is that there are no actual rivers in Hong Kong so this is actually a pond, but it could definitely work. It's the best I've seen so I'm pretty happy with it. Much better than what we saw yesterday.
Went to see some grassy fields. This grass is great but there isn't enough of it. Plus, there are city lights all around us. We'd have to keep the angles pretty tight. Not going to work.
Headed to another part of town, a place for the first dialogue scene of the film. I need an area outside of town but On found this cool little meeting place-temple that we can use as a background. Great colorful stuff inside. Maybe I can add a scene in front of this table. Maybe not.
We then saw a little road that could work for some stuff. It's not very long, but it might work for a little bit of a scene. The best thing we found on this excursion was this dry little drainage creek that looks exactly like the river I'm looking for, if there was water in it, of course. On is optimistic. He says we can put a portable damn on one end and fill this thing. Very cool. On is the man!
Off to another possibility for the first dialogue scene. Much better than the last suggestion, but not what I want. I guess I could make it work if I needed to. Seems to be the way it is for every location I see, though. Not feeling great at the moment. Plus, the bus gets stuck and we have to take a taxi to the OCTOBER offices.
We meet with On, Ronald and Man Man and go through the script. On has some questions for me. The whole location problem comes up. It seems like everything I see doesn't work for me. And I'm not being picky at all. Matt and Gregg feel the same way.
On admits that he doesn't know if we're going to find stuff that works for this film in HONG KONG. We're making a film that takes place in rural China but there HONG KONG is pretty much completely developed. This thing is going to be a challenge for sure.
We leave a bit down but Ronald has promised to go back to the drawing board and look for more locations. He feels there are options we haven't seen yet.
On the way home we pass an interesting store and chill out at the hotel for a while. I take a nap and can barely get up at 8 pm to head to dinner. I'm dragging ass the rest of the night. Matt and I want something familiar. 99% of the food we've eaten in the last two days has been completely unfamiliar, and while it's been good, we are both in the mood for something simple and normal.
Gregg fights us every step of the way and we look for some other options but we're all so tired and just want to eat and hit the sack, so we hit a place called THE SPEGHETTI HOUSE. It starts as a joke but we soon find ourselves waiting for our seats, checking out the pretty lame menu.
The food was all right, but it was pizza and pasta and it definitely reset Matt and I for some more experimentation in the days to come. Gregg can't believe we came to HONG KONG and ate at a lousy chain restaurant. He displays his anger clearly.
Back to the room and down we go. I'm so freaking tired I can't even check my email. I almost fall asleep checking my email.
Down I go, a bit bummed about the location situation but hoping we can find something in the next few days.
Let's hope Ronald will come through.
-ed
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Gregg and I went for a walk and got a bit lost. The streets are pretty confusing here, they're not laid out like most cities. We made it just in time to shower up and grab a few croissants from the breakfast bar before being picked up.
Went downstairs and met the partners from OCTOBER PICTURES, On and Daniel. Outside was this huge, 26-passenger bus waiting for us. Biggest vehicle I've even used for a scout, but it gave us plenty of room.
Headed over to a big studio complex with amazing soundstages. A bit overkill for us at this point but at least it's an option. Then headed to some more down and dirty studios, much more our style. They had a water tank, which was pretty nifty. I had never seen one like this before. It has two big windows build into two of its walls that you can shoot through. We need this thing for one of the end scenes.
They also showed us their soundstage, which was nothing more than a big building with AC. Not much soundproofing but there isn't much dialogue in the last scene, which is what were going to shoot here. This place is definitely the place to shoot.
Back in the bus, headed toward the first village possibility, an abandoned little huddle of buildings at the end of a tiny road. Completely overgrown, the structure of the buildings is still pretty good and with some clean up it could definitely work. The only thing it doesn't have is this central courtyard kind of area that I really need. There are a few good places but none of them are big enough.
Went inside one of the houses and found some creepy old pictures sitting on a shelf. We then found out that someone still lives out here, all by himself. That's crazy shit.
Honestly, this place would've been the shit years ago when people still farmed this area. Pretty little courtyards and you can only imagine the gardens you could have out here. But it's all a mess now.
Then went to lunch, our first meal in HONG KONG. Thai food. The guys just ordered a bunch of food for us and we ate like crazy. It was fantastic.
Off to another village, one that Rob had visited on his visit here a few months back. Again, totally dilapidated. Someone lives here, though. They put a sign outside their door to stop people from bothering them.
This village wasn't as good as the first one and it didn't have the courtyard area that I need, so it's a no go.
Back to the hotel, then out to one of Daniel and On's favorite places. Everyone seemed to know these guys and they just kept bringing out food, man. Stuff that I had never eaten but all pretty good. They also kept filling my beer bowl up so I was working on a pretty good buzz as we left the joint.
Back to the hotel, more drinking, listening to some cool live music in the lounge, then off to a tiny bar down the street. More drinking, watching STUART LITTLE 2 on the TV in the bar, crazy buzz going at that point. Compton leaves, he's too tired to go on.
Smart guy. Gregg and I hang out some more, finish our beers and then head back to our rooms. Time to sleep. I'm this close to being sick from too much beer.
A great first day in HONG KONG is over. More scouting tomorrow. Hope the spinning doesn't start before I go to sleep.
Peace.
-ed
Hong Kong DAY 1
Got up pretty early on Saturday morning, excited about being in this new city. The view from my hotel room is great so I just opened the curtain and looked out there for a while at all the people and cars below. I wrote this script just a few months ago and now I'm in HONG KONG scouting. Amazing.Gregg and I went for a walk and got a bit lost. The streets are pretty confusing here, they're not laid out like most cities. We made it just in time to shower up and grab a few croissants from the breakfast bar before being picked up.
Went downstairs and met the partners from OCTOBER PICTURES, On and Daniel. Outside was this huge, 26-passenger bus waiting for us. Biggest vehicle I've even used for a scout, but it gave us plenty of room.
Headed over to a big studio complex with amazing soundstages. A bit overkill for us at this point but at least it's an option. Then headed to some more down and dirty studios, much more our style. They had a water tank, which was pretty nifty. I had never seen one like this before. It has two big windows build into two of its walls that you can shoot through. We need this thing for one of the end scenes.
They also showed us their soundstage, which was nothing more than a big building with AC. Not much soundproofing but there isn't much dialogue in the last scene, which is what were going to shoot here. This place is definitely the place to shoot.
Back in the bus, headed toward the first village possibility, an abandoned little huddle of buildings at the end of a tiny road. Completely overgrown, the structure of the buildings is still pretty good and with some clean up it could definitely work. The only thing it doesn't have is this central courtyard kind of area that I really need. There are a few good places but none of them are big enough.
Went inside one of the houses and found some creepy old pictures sitting on a shelf. We then found out that someone still lives out here, all by himself. That's crazy shit.
Honestly, this place would've been the shit years ago when people still farmed this area. Pretty little courtyards and you can only imagine the gardens you could have out here. But it's all a mess now.
Then went to lunch, our first meal in HONG KONG. Thai food. The guys just ordered a bunch of food for us and we ate like crazy. It was fantastic.
Off to another village, one that Rob had visited on his visit here a few months back. Again, totally dilapidated. Someone lives here, though. They put a sign outside their door to stop people from bothering them.
This village wasn't as good as the first one and it didn't have the courtyard area that I need, so it's a no go.
Back to the hotel, then out to one of Daniel and On's favorite places. Everyone seemed to know these guys and they just kept bringing out food, man. Stuff that I had never eaten but all pretty good. They also kept filling my beer bowl up so I was working on a pretty good buzz as we left the joint.
Back to the hotel, more drinking, listening to some cool live music in the lounge, then off to a tiny bar down the street. More drinking, watching STUART LITTLE 2 on the TV in the bar, crazy buzz going at that point. Compton leaves, he's too tired to go on.
Smart guy. Gregg and I hang out some more, finish our beers and then head back to our rooms. Time to sleep. I'm this close to being sick from too much beer.
A great first day in HONG KONG is over. More scouting tomorrow. Hope the spinning doesn't start before I go to sleep.
Peace.
-ed
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Off to HONG KONG!
Started a new category for SEVENTH MOON in the forum. Not much to talk about now but there'll be plenty of hard-hitting, bone-crushing, erectile-dysfunctional action in the months to come! Plenty of action! Off to HONG KONG today. 14-hour flight, but I've got my three POWERBOOK batteries charged, some DVDs, a PSP, my IPOD, some butt-beads for Gregg and a bunch of scripts to read. I should be all right. Catching up on some sleep will be nice, too. TUESDAY We headed to SPECTRAL MOTION for the first full-on make-up test and it looked pretty great. Fernando and Constantine are fucking champs. Still some tweaks to do but we're definitely most of the way there. The actor/model was a good guy and he was into it, moving around the workshop doing all kinds of cool, creepy shit with me following him with my video camera. Wish I could post some of that stuff but you know I can't. It worked well, especially when we moved into a dark room and switched to NIGHTSHOT on my camera to create an environment closer to the film. Worked fucking GREAT. Just catching little glimpses of these things in the dark is going to be really effective. It's all about the camerawork and the editing, Sanchez. Don't forget that vision, manhood. We then headed over to PASADENA and hung with Dan Myrick for a while. We saw Julia, her mom and the little dude, TUCKER, and also got to see some footage of his latest film, THE OBJECTIVE. That shit was pretty tight, man. He shot in MOROCCO and the locations were amazing. It was also good to see Mike Williams back in front of the camera. The film is going to be sweet. Then went to the ARCLIGHT and saw the new FANTASTIC FOUR movie. I'm not even going to go there with that one... WEDNESDAY Bob Eick joined the crew and we headed over to ENDEAVOR. We crammed into Rob's rental and got stuck in some major traffic on the way there so we were late as shit. We met with Graham Taylor and Susan Solomon. Good people, excited about the film. We talked about selling strategies and actresses, since the lead is a female and we're looking to get someone in there with a bit of a name this time around. They had some great suggestions and seemed to dig who we had chosen. So today we went out with the first offer to a lead actress, our number one, our fucking home run if we get her. She's going to read the script on Monday so we're excited as hell. It's a long shot but who the hell knows? If she joins us this thing then we're going to be playing on a whole new level. Then we met with Stuart, our lawyer. Great guy. It was good to see him and his right hand woman, Alexandra. Been years since we've seen them both together. Good to see his name in the lobby wall as a partner in the firm. Then we met with Linda Philips-Palo and her husband, Paul. They cast ALTERED and are casting this one, too. We've got a hell of a list and she's been getting the script ready to go out. I'll be back in LA in mid-July to read people but this was just a get our shit together meeting. Went well, good to see Linda and Paul. They are a real joy to work with. Then, eating sushi in Beverly Hills, Phil Raskind, SUPER AGENT, walks in. We missed him earlier because we were so late, so it was good to run into him like that. Always good to see Mr. Phil. So LA is done. On to China. Wish me luck. Miss Stef and kids like crazy. -ed0
Peace and love from LA.
-ed
First day in LA
Spent the day yesterday looking at camera options with Compton. I really thought this was going to be an easy choice but the options are still pretty limited when it comes to something that you hope will have a theatrical life. You either go with film, 35 or SUPER 16, or some of the higher-end HD cameras. In all those cases except SUPER 16, you're stuck with a pretty big camera. There is a pretty small 16 camera, but it only accepts 200' rolls, which gives you 6 minutes to shoot with. We hadn't budgeted for 16 anyway and after talking to Dan about THE OBJECTIVE, which he shot on SUPER 16, I really don't want to go with that format. He said he dreaded every roll-out (when the film runs out on the camera). It would add money to the budget and limit the way I want to shoot this film. I honestly thought the HD thing had been figured out. The small cameras, which I really want to use, don't deliver the resolution that the big cameras do, and we're afraid that this will hurt us down the road for theatrical possibilities. But I have a certain look for this film that I've seen in my head for a long time and it isn't exactly pristine. It's pretty damn ugly, actually. Hand-held and dark as shit. I just don't see me being able to deliver this look with a big-ass camera. Sucks. We spend most of the day with this cool-ass dude Illya Friedman who showed us some cameras and answered all our questions. He showed us some projected images from a new HD camera called THE EVOLUTION his company DALSA is working on and it completely blew me away. The sharpest and most film-like images I've ever seen in my life. Fuck that, it looked better than any film I've ever seen projected. Just unbelievable. Once this camera hits the market in January there will absolutely be no reason to use film anymore. No more video blowout and narrow latitude. This thing showed details in the blackest and brightest images, all in the same shot. It even shows colors that film can't. This would be the camera to use on SEVENTH MOON if we were shooting it next year. Then we went over to PLASTERCITY and met with Michael (sorry, forgot his last name), another cool and really knowledgeable guy that projected images from most of the HD cameras on the market today. Or course, the big cameras looked much better than the smaller ones, but the smaller ones looked pretty tight, too. So do I compromise mobility for image quality, or do I stick to my guns and go with the small cameras, possibly risking a theatrical release? How much of a risk is it, though? If the film works, no one is going to turn us down because it doesn't look as sharp as it could, will they? I mean my first film was shot mostly on HI-8, for God's sake. Also, SEVENTH MOON isn't LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, you know? I'm counting on fucked up, dark images on this one. Rob and Gregg just landed and we are headed over to SPECTRAL MOTION at 2pm for make-up tests. This is the first time we'll see this concept of mine in real life so I'm hoping for good things. The film depends on these "things" working 200% so they've got to be kicking. I'm going to videotape and shoot some photos, some of which I'll post on my FLICKR and YOUTUBE pages later.Peace and love from LA.
-ed
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I finished the first pass on the third draft last Friday. I tied up a lot of loose ends and added some ideas that the team suggested. I wasn't completely happy with it so I've been tweaking it here and there all week long. I think I'll tweak it some more today. One of the true pleasures in life is tweaking my script. I highly recommend it.
Sent it out the the agents at ENDEAVOR, who seem to dig it pretty good. Phil Raskind, Super-Agent, said "This is your sweet spot. A very good script. Let's go make this." Not his common reponse to most of the stuff I send him, so that's good. We're meeting with the boys and our lawyer in LA in two weeks.
We've hired SPECTRAL MOTION to design the look of the BAD GUYS for us. They did the effects for ALTERED and while this one is more low-key than the effects in that film (how could it not be), we still love that we're in the best hands in HOLLYWOOD when it comes to our make-up and effects. It's great working with these guys. Mike Elizalde, the head of the company, is busy working on HELL BOY II but he still has time to join in on the discussions and is honestly excited about our little film. It's very cool.
And the stuff they're doing is amazing. I had a pretty cool idea about what I wanted the BAD GUYS to look like, but they just elavated that into something even better than I though possible. They are truly talented and have come up with some creepy ass shit. We're meeting with them while we're in LA, too. They're doing the first full-on make-up test and I'll be there to direct the actor some with his movements and shit. It's exciting junk for sure. One of their guys will come with us to HONG KONG so we'll be in good hands, even half-way around the world.
After LA we're headed to HONG KONG for four or five days to meet our production partners, scout locations, meet with a few DPs, see some casting people, check out the local club scene, visit some brothels, and pretty much everything else that we can while we're there. I'm sure stuff will pop-up so it's going to be a busy week. It's the first time in HONG KONG for all of us going (Matt Compton, Gregg Hale and I) so it should be quite a trip. I hate leaving the family on these long trips but I'm looking forward to getting out there and seeing this place that has only existed in my mind up to now. It's going to get the juices flowing for sure. I just hope it's the creative juices and not the other kind of juices. That would be a bad thing.
We're gearing up the casting situation here in the states as quickly as possible. We've hired Linda Phillips-Palo form ALTERED to cast for us again. We're making contact right now through a friend at our first choice for the lead of the film, an actress that I'm sure you all know and that we'd be really lucky to get. It's a long shot but we're keeping our fingers crossed.
What else, what else...that's pretty much it at this point. All I can say is that we're in full production mode now and we're starting to bust our asses on this thing. It's great to be making a film again, that's for sure.
Check my FLICKR page to keep track of the high-jinks on the trip. At least the LA part of it, since I don't think I'll be able to update live from HONG KONG. You'll have your fill of Compton and Hale photos for sure.
Peace in the middle east.
-ed
Third draft done, heading to HONG KONG!
Word.I finished the first pass on the third draft last Friday. I tied up a lot of loose ends and added some ideas that the team suggested. I wasn't completely happy with it so I've been tweaking it here and there all week long. I think I'll tweak it some more today. One of the true pleasures in life is tweaking my script. I highly recommend it.
Sent it out the the agents at ENDEAVOR, who seem to dig it pretty good. Phil Raskind, Super-Agent, said "This is your sweet spot. A very good script. Let's go make this." Not his common reponse to most of the stuff I send him, so that's good. We're meeting with the boys and our lawyer in LA in two weeks.
We've hired SPECTRAL MOTION to design the look of the BAD GUYS for us. They did the effects for ALTERED and while this one is more low-key than the effects in that film (how could it not be), we still love that we're in the best hands in HOLLYWOOD when it comes to our make-up and effects. It's great working with these guys. Mike Elizalde, the head of the company, is busy working on HELL BOY II but he still has time to join in on the discussions and is honestly excited about our little film. It's very cool.
And the stuff they're doing is amazing. I had a pretty cool idea about what I wanted the BAD GUYS to look like, but they just elavated that into something even better than I though possible. They are truly talented and have come up with some creepy ass shit. We're meeting with them while we're in LA, too. They're doing the first full-on make-up test and I'll be there to direct the actor some with his movements and shit. It's exciting junk for sure. One of their guys will come with us to HONG KONG so we'll be in good hands, even half-way around the world.
After LA we're headed to HONG KONG for four or five days to meet our production partners, scout locations, meet with a few DPs, see some casting people, check out the local club scene, visit some brothels, and pretty much everything else that we can while we're there. I'm sure stuff will pop-up so it's going to be a busy week. It's the first time in HONG KONG for all of us going (Matt Compton, Gregg Hale and I) so it should be quite a trip. I hate leaving the family on these long trips but I'm looking forward to getting out there and seeing this place that has only existed in my mind up to now. It's going to get the juices flowing for sure. I just hope it's the creative juices and not the other kind of juices. That would be a bad thing.
We're gearing up the casting situation here in the states as quickly as possible. We've hired Linda Phillips-Palo form ALTERED to cast for us again. We're making contact right now through a friend at our first choice for the lead of the film, an actress that I'm sure you all know and that we'd be really lucky to get. It's a long shot but we're keeping our fingers crossed.
What else, what else...that's pretty much it at this point. All I can say is that we're in full production mode now and we're starting to bust our asses on this thing. It's great to be making a film again, that's for sure.
Check my FLICKR page to keep track of the high-jinks on the trip. At least the LA part of it, since I don't think I'll be able to update live from HONG KONG. You'll have your fill of Compton and Hale photos for sure.
Peace in the middle east.
-ed
